Dessert shops sit at the meeting point of food manufacturing and retail service. The 2023 U.S. Census AIES31BASIC01 figures reported for bakeries show the scale behind that market: retail bakeries recorded $6.938 billion in sales, while commercial bakeries recorded $42.477 billion. The same source also reports payroll, employment, production hours, materials, and operating expenses, giving dessert businesses several useful benchmarks.
Contents
- At-a-glance bakery statistics
- Retail bakery sales and expenses
- Commercial bakery scale
- Employment and production work
- Payroll and worker compensation
- Materials, resale items, and contract work
At-a-glance bakery statistics
The clearest way to frame dessert-shop activity is to separate retail bakeries from commercial bakeries. Retail bakeries are the closest category in these figures to customer-facing dessert shops. Commercial bakeries represent a much larger production-oriented category. The broader bread and bakery product manufacturing category includes both types of activity within a wider manufacturing definition.
All figures in this article refer to the United States and to 2023 unless a measurement date is stated. Dollar amounts are reported in thousands of dollars by the Census source; they are converted below into billions or millions where that makes comparisons easier. These are reported figures from the Census AIES31BASIC01 2023 release, and the historical research record was not independently verified here.
| Category | Sales or revenue | Operating expenses | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail bakeries | $6.938 billion | $6.061 billion | 89,967 |
| Commercial bakeries | $42.477 billion | $30.068 billion | 124,005 |
| Bread and bakery product manufacturing | $58.398 billion | $43.456 billion | 239,486 |
| Bakeries and tortilla manufacturing | $90.198 billion | $67.137 billion | 315,905 |
The categories are not interchangeable. A dessert-shop owner can use the retail-bakery figures as a broad market reference, while commercial and manufacturing figures provide context about supply chains and larger-scale production. They should not be added together as if they were separate, non-overlapping markets.
Retail bakery sales and expenses
U.S. retail bakeries recorded $6,938,101 thousand in sales, value of shipments, or revenue in 2023. That is approximately $6.938 billion for the category. Retail bakeries also recorded $6,060,539 thousand in operating expenses, or about $6.061 billion.
The difference between these two reported amounts is approximately $877.562 million. It is a simple comparison of the supplied sales and operating-expense figures, not a measure of profit. The data does not provide a complete income statement, and operating expenses are not the same as every possible business cost or a shop’s final earnings.
Retail bakery payroll reached $2,225,020 thousand for the full year, approximately $2.225 billion. First-quarter payroll was $535,498 thousand, or about $535.5 million. The first-quarter figure is a period-specific payroll measure and should not be treated as one quarter that can automatically be multiplied by four to recreate the annual number.
Production-worker compensation was also substantial. Retail bakeries paid $1,495,860 thousand in production workers’ annual wages in 2023, alongside $356,955 thousand in production workers’ first-quarter payroll. Total employer fringe-benefit costs were $430,492 thousand. These measures describe different parts of labor cost, so they are best read together rather than treated as duplicate versions of the same statistic.
For a dessert shop, this distinction matters. Annual payroll covers the category’s full-year payroll measure, production-worker wages focus on a defined group of workers, and fringe-benefit costs capture employer-paid benefits. None of the figures gives a typical wage for an individual employee or a typical payroll percentage for one shop.
Commercial bakery scale
Commercial bakeries recorded $42,476,631 thousand in sales, value of shipments, or revenue in 2023, approximately $42.477 billion. Their reported operating expenses were $30,067,805 thousand, or about $30.068 billion. Commercial bakeries therefore represent a substantially larger reported sales category than retail bakeries.
Commercial bakery annual payroll was $6,641,800 thousand, approximately $6.642 billion. First-quarter payroll was $1,606,890 thousand. The category employed 124,005 people in 2023, including 95,144 production workers in the pay period that included March 12, 2023.
Production workers’ annual wages totaled $4,570,028 thousand, while their first-quarter payroll totaled $1,004,247 thousand. Commercial bakeries also incurred $1,847,287 thousand in total employer fringe-benefit costs. Annual production-worker hours reached 176,216 thousand hours.
The commercial category’s reported total cost of materials was $17,330,534 thousand. Within the listed cost measures, purchases of other materials, parts, and supplies not for resale accounted for $15,452,649 thousand. Cost of resale without further manufacturing was $1,162,077 thousand, and contract work was $147,224 thousand.
These numbers describe the economic footprint of commercial bakery production, not the operating model of every dessert counter or café. A shop that bakes on-site may have a different mix of labor, ingredients, resale goods, and contracted services than a large commercial producer.
Employment and production work
The broader U.S. bread and bakery product manufacturing category employed 239,486 people in 2023. It had 177,991 production workers in the pay period including March 12, 2023, and recorded 296,705 thousand annual production-worker hours.
Retail bakeries reported 89,967 employees and 63,147 production workers for the corresponding March pay-period measure. Their annual production-worker hours totaled 84,088 thousand. Commercial bakeries reported 124,005 employees, 95,144 production workers, and 176,216 thousand annual production-worker hours.
| Category | Employees | Production workers | Annual production-worker hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail bakeries | 89,967 | 63,147 | 84,088 thousand |
| Commercial bakeries | 124,005 | 95,144 | 176,216 thousand |
| Bread and bakery product manufacturing | 239,486 | 177,991 | 296,705 thousand |
| Bakeries and tortilla manufacturing | 315,905 | 236,288 | 407,459 thousand |
The production-worker counts are tied to the pay period including March 12, 2023, while the employee totals and hours are annual category measures. That timing difference is important when using the figures as benchmarks. The source does not establish that the March count was the average staffing level for the entire year.
The broad bakeries-and-tortilla-manufacturing category recorded 315,905 employees, 236,288 production workers in the March 12 pay period, and 407,459 thousand annual production-worker hours. Those figures show how much larger the combined category is than retail bakeries alone, but they also include tortilla manufacturing and should not be labeled dessert-shop employment.
Payroll and worker compensation
The broad bakeries-and-tortilla-manufacturing category posted $14,230,950 thousand in annual payroll and $3,502,659 thousand in first-quarter payroll in 2023. Production workers’ annual wages were $9,629,271 thousand, and production workers’ first-quarter payroll was $2,243,875 thousand. Total employer fringe-benefit costs were $3,746,707 thousand.
Bread and bakery product manufacturing reported $10,133,881 thousand in annual payroll and $2,474,588 thousand in first-quarter payroll. Its production workers’ annual wages totaled $6,887,624 thousand, while production workers’ first-quarter payroll totaled $1,571,526 thousand. Total employer fringe-benefit costs reached $2,591,471 thousand.
The category comparison shows the difference between the broad combined measure and the bread-and-bakery manufacturing measure:
| Category | Annual payroll | Production workers’ annual wages | Fringe-benefit costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail bakeries | $2.225 billion | $1.496 billion | $430.492 million |
| Commercial bakeries | $6.642 billion | $4.570 billion | $1.847 billion |
| Bread and bakery product manufacturing | $10.134 billion | $6.888 billion | $2.591 billion |
| Bakeries and tortilla manufacturing | $14.231 billion | $9.629 billion | $3.747 billion |
For dessert businesses, payroll is a useful scale indicator, but it is not a staffing recommendation. The reported categories include businesses with different production methods and sizes. The source also does not provide shop-level schedules, hourly rates, turnover, or the share of payroll attributable specifically to desserts.
Materials, resale items, and contract work
Materials are another major dividing line between a customer-facing bakery and a large production category. Retail bakeries recorded $2,537,255 thousand in total cost of materials in 2023, approximately $2.537 billion. They spent $2,057,334 thousand on purchases of other materials, parts, and supplies not for resale, recorded $272,761 thousand in cost of resale without further manufacturing, and spent $64,224 thousand on contract work.
Commercial bakeries recorded $17,330,534 thousand in total cost of materials. Their purchases of other materials, parts, and supplies not for resale were $15,452,649 thousand. They recorded $1,162,077 thousand in cost of resale without further manufacturing and $147,224 thousand in contract work.
Bread and bakery product manufacturing reported $24,618,900 thousand in total cost of materials, $22,025,107 thousand in purchases of other materials, parts, and supplies not for resale, $1,549,335 thousand in cost of resale without further manufacturing, and $225,210 thousand in contract work.
Across bakeries and tortilla manufacturing, total cost of materials was $40,572,434 thousand. Purchases of other materials, parts, and supplies not for resale reached $37,044,985 thousand. Cost of resale without further manufacturing was $1,902,505 thousand, and contract work was $417,060 thousand.
The retail figures are the most relevant starting point for a dessert-shop discussion, but they still cover a category rather than a single business model. “Cost of resale without further manufacturing” is reported separately from other materials and supplies, so a shop selling packaged drinks, candies, or other purchased goods should not assume that all sales inputs belong in one cost bucket. Likewise, contract work is a distinct reported measure and does not describe every outside service a shop might use.
For market sizing, the safest interpretation is categorical: retail bakeries provide a broad customer-facing reference, commercial bakeries show the larger production environment, and the manufacturing totals establish the scale of the wider U.S. bakery supply chain in 2023.